In a strategic move signaling deeper regional engagement, Egypt’s DisrupTech Ventures has made its first foray into Morocco by investing in Casablanca-based fintech startup Chari. The transaction, announced in early November 2025, marks DisrupTech’s second investment outside Egypt and highlights growing investor confidence in Morocco’s financial technology landscape. Chari, which offers embedded financial services to small retailers, is poised to become a key player in driving financial inclusion across Francophone Africa.
DisrupTech Backs Chari to Bridge Financial Divide
DisrupTech Ventures joins a roster of prominent backers in Chari’s Series A extension round, building on the startup’s recent $12 million Series A closing. Led by SPE Capital and Orange Ventures, the round attracted over a dozen global investors, underscoring broad institutional faith in Chari’s model and mission. DisrupTech’s investment also secures it a seat on Chari’s board of directors, enabling active involvement in the company’s growth trajectory.
Founded in 2020 by Ismael Belkhayat and Sophia Alj, Chari targets Morocco’s informal retail ecosystem. Through its mobile platform, the startup enables over 20,000 small retailers to place inventory orders and access value-added financial services such as digital payments, micro-insurance, and money transfers. With its recently secured payment institution licence from Bank Al-Maghrib, Chari is now licensed to issue IBANs and debit cards, a milestone that formally integrates it into Morocco’s regulated financial system.
A Strategic Expansion Beyond Egypt
Until recently, DisrupTech Ventures limited its scope to Egypt’s burgeoning fintech landscape. The firm raised $36 million from a mix of development finance institutions, family offices, and funds-of-funds, with major commitments from IFC and Proparco, who each contributed $5 million.
Led by veteran fintech entrepreneur Mohamed Okasha—previously Managing Director and co-founder of Fawry, Egypt’s largest electronic payments company—DisrupTech has quickly emerged as a leading early-stage investor. Within 18 months of launch, it deployed 30 percent of its fund, with 40 percent invested by the time of its 2022 Proparco partnership.
DisrupTech’s backing of Chari follows its June 2025 investment in Nigeria-based Winich Farms, an agritech platform that connects 180,000 farmers with buyers and financial tools. These moves reflect DisrupTech’s growing continental ambitions and its interest in models that deliver financial access from the grassroots up.
A New Blueprint for Grassroots Finance
“Chari is redefining how financial services are delivered at the grassroots level,” said Okasha in a statement regarding the investment. “By empowering small shops to act as financial gateways, Chari is creating the foundation for a new, inclusive fintech infrastructure in Morocco. This is exactly the kind of transformative model we seek to support across Africa.”
The strategic alignment between the two firms is clear. Both share a focus on financial inclusion driven by accessible, tech-enabled solutions. Chari’s platform transforms informal neighborhood shops—long-standing fixtures in Moroccan life—into de facto bank branches for underserved communities. This model unlocks financial access not just for merchants but for their entire customer base.
Morocco’s Informal Economy Comes Online
Morocco’s informal retail sector is vast, yet historically excluded from the formal financial ecosystem. With thousands of mini-markets and corner shops operating on cash-based transactions, access to credit, insurance, and even basic banking has remained limited.
Chari’s digital model addresses this systemic gap. By leveraging mobile technology and newly acquired regulatory credentials, the company is positioning itself as a financial infrastructure layer bridging informal retail and formal banking. The addition of embedded services—such as issuing debit cards and offering micro-insurance—expands its value proposition beyond logistics into full-spectrum fintech enablement.
Bigger Ambitions, Beyond Morocco
While Chari’s current operations are centered in Morocco, the company has its sights set on scaling across Francophone Africa, a region where informal economies and financial exclusion remain pronounced. The backing of DisrupTech—whose investment thesis centers on early-stage fintech for underserved markets—provides critical support for these expansion plans.
“With DisrupTech’s backing, we are accelerating our mission to turn every corner shop into a financial access point,” said Chari CEO Ismael Belkhayat. “Together, we will continue to build technologies that drive financial inclusion and economic growth across Africa.”
Paving the Road to Inclusive Fintech
The DisrupTech-Chari partnership signifies more than capital injection; it reflects a convergence of expertise, vision, and strategic geography. DisrupTech brings a mentorship-driven, hands-on approach to its investments, offering not just funding but also operational guidance and access to regional fintech know-how.
For Morocco’s startup ecosystem, the investment marks a milestone. The entry of an Egypt-based fintech specialist VC firm validates the country’s potential as a hub for innovation in inclusive finance. It also signals an evolution: fintech innovators in Morocco are no longer confined to local or Western backers but are increasingly part of a pan-African venture capital circuit.
Looking Ahead
DisrupTech’s investment in Chari may be a harbinger of things to come. As African fintech ventures continue to scale innovative models targeting the informal economy—from agritech in Nigeria to retail finance in Morocco—the lines between different sectors and countries are beginning to blur. A shared goal drives the momentum: building financial systems that work for everyone, not just the privileged few.
In that sense, Chari’s corner shop revolution may point to a future where financial inclusion is not an aspiration, but a distributed reality—one neighborhood at a time.
